What happens is, if you go online for shopping to one of the partner websites of Shoppers Discount, such as Buy.com or Frangrance.net, they sell your credit card information to Shoppers Discount. After you complete your order, they’ll show you a dialogue box saying something like “Would you like a 10% discount on your next purchase?” or “Would you like to receive a $20 off coupon?”. You would naturally select “Yes” and fall prey of an e-fraud. They’ll get your card information from the order which you just placed and start charging you on monthly basis.

Almost a year ago, if customers would find that this fraudulent company has been charging them for a membership they never subscribed for, they would call this company and get their mendaciously established membership cancelled, plus, they would get a complete refund. Yes, this notorious company used to give a full refund to its preys. But that didn’t last more than a few months; later on, they changed their company policy. Now, if you are one of the victims like me, they would straight tell you that only 2 month’s charges will be refunded, for the rest of the refund you need to fill a form (which again requires you to enter your credit card and address information) and send them back via postal mail and then wait for 30 days, until company’s executive makes a decision on your claim. If company’s executive feels that your billing was unauthorized then he/she might have mercy on you and refund your money.

This is a piece of Bull Crap! Why should I wait for 30 days to get my money back that was fraudulently charged from my credit card? It’s the wicked collaboration of Shoppers Discount and Buy.com that is causing aggravation among zillions of other customers just like me. Phone number provided on their website also doesn’t work, which is a clear proof of their spuriousness. These people should be ashamed of themselves for doing such a nasty business. Customer Service Representatives at this company, who are being used by their evil managers and directors, should resign and prefer a life with honor and grace instead of being devil’s factotums. It seems we are completely at the mercy of these 21st century’s modern e-thugs, who can manipulate online shoppers as they choose to.

The complete official information of this company given by BBB is as follows:

Well, if you are in US then getting your money back from devils is a 3 step process:

Call WebLoyalty, Inc. (phone number given above or can be found at respective organization’s website) and ask them to cancel your membership immediately and refund all of your money. They would refund 2 month’s charges immediately and would refuse to give a complete refund. Once you get 2 month’s charges back in your credit card, go to step 2.

Call your credit card bank and dispute all the charges from WebLoyalty, Inc (or any of its sister organization). Bank would welcome your disputes and would take at least a month to cancel 2 more transactions. Right after calling your bank and disputing these charges, go to step 3 if devils have charged you longer than 4 months.

Go to BBB’s website (link given above) and file a complaint against this company. In 30 days, you’ll get all of your money back.

For the benefit of those who don’t know how to file a complaint and/or think they don’t have good written communication skills, I am giving the text of my correspondence with BBB as follows. Albeit it’s not the best way to file the complaint, but it’s good enough to get all of your money back!

I purchased some electronic equipment, online at Buy.com in September 2008. Buy.com gave my credit card information to Shoppers Discount & Rewards without my consent. Since then Shoppers Discount & Rewards aka Webloyalty.com, Inc has been charging my credit card a monthly bill of $12.00 for a service membership (membership #: #########) that I never subscribed for. I contacted Shoppers Discount & Rewards through e-mail and requested them to cancel my membership and refund my money. They agreed to refund only 2 month’s charges and told me that in order to get a full refund; I need to wait for 30 days and fill a form and send it to them via postal mail. The form, they ask to fill, again requires credit card and address information which I’m not comfortable and willing to give them; nor I’m willing to wait for 30 days. They told me that if I don’t give my credit card and address information then I can’t get my money back.

Consumer’s Desired Resolution:

I want a complete refund of my money.I’ve search on internet and found that there are hundreds and thousands of customers who are victim of their mendaciously established so-called membership. I’ve also understood that it’s the wicked collaboration of Shoppers Discount and Buy.com that is causing frustration and aggravation among zillions of other customers just like me, e.g. take a look at this link:

Ideally speaking, this company should not be allowed to do their fraudulent business any more, CEO should be arrested and all higher management people, who allowed these malicious tactics, should be incarcerated.

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BBB Processing

03/23/2009 web BBB Case Received by BBB

04/03/2009 Otto BBB Case Reviewed by BBB

04/06/2009 OttO EMAIL Send Acknowledgement to Consumer

04/06/2009 OttO EMAIL Notify Business of Dispute

04/20/2009 WEB BBB RECEIVE BUSINESS RESPONSE : April 20, 2009

Ms. Patricia D. Sturm

Support Manager, Inquiry/Complaint Dept.

Better Business Bureau, Inc.

94 South Turnpike Road

Wallingford, CT 06492

Re: Mr. Mukarram Mukhtar

Dear Ms. Sturm:

This letter is a response to your correspondence of April 6, 2009, regarding the complaint of Mr. Mukarram Mukhtar.

Our records show that Mr. Mukhtar, completed an online transaction at http://www.Buy.com on August 21, 2008. After completing the transaction he was offered a free 30-day trial of our Shopper Discounts & Rewards service and ”$10 Off Your Next Purchase” for trying our service, which he accepted.

Mr. Mukhtar accepted the trial membership offer for Shopper Discounts & Rewards by entering the email address mukarram@hotmail.com twice and then clicking the ”YES!” button on the page (a copy of this form and a hard copy of this letter is being mailed directly to the customer under separate cover). Immediately to the left of the ”YES!” button are the ”Offer and Billing Details.” The Offer and Billing Details set forth the terms of the offer, including the $12 monthly membership fee following the free trial and advise the consumer that the fee will be billed to the credit or debit card he used for his transaction with Buy.com. Immediately above the location on the offer page where Mr. Mukhtar entered his email address twice and clicked ”Yes” is the following statement: ”By entering my email address as my electronic signature and clicking YES, I have read and agree to the Offer and Billing Details and authorize Buy.com to securely transfer my name, address and credit or debit card information to Shopper Discounts & Rewards for billing and benefit processing.”

Thus, by accepting the offer, Mr. Mukhtar agreed that the Shopper Discounts & Rewards $12 monthly membership fee would be billed to the credit or debit card used in connection with his transaction with Buy.com. Immediately after clicking the ”YES!” button, Mr. Mukhtar was taken to another screen welcoming him to the program. This page advised Mr. Mukhtar that he had just joined Shopper Discounts & Rewards. Within the next few minutes, Mr. Mukhtar was sent two emails from us including his membership kit and password and reminding him to use his ”$10 Off Your Next Purchase.”

On August 22, 2008, we sent Mr. Mukhtar an email explaining how to access the Shopper Discounts & Rewards membership. On August 23, 2008, we sent Mr. Mukhtar an email with the PIN code assigned to his ”$10 Off Your Next Purchase.” On August 28, 2008, we sent Mr. Mukhtar an email reminding him to use the benefits of his membership. On September 8, 2008, we sent Mr. Mukhtar an email to remind him that the free trial membership would conclude on September 19, 2008 and at that time, he would be billed the monthly membership fee. The email also included our toll-free telephone number if he wished to cancel, in which event, he would not be charged.

Mr. Mukhtar was charged the first $12 monthly membership fee at the end of his free trial membership on September 20, 2008. That same day, we sent Mr. Mukhtar an email reminding him of the benefits of the membership. Mr. Mukhtar was charged the monthly membership fee from September of 2008 to March of 2009. In addition, we continued to send emails to Mr. Mukhtar on the following dates: October 20, 2008, November 19, 2008, December 19, 2008, January 18, 2009, February 17, 2009, and March 19, 2009 reminding him to use all the benefits of the Shopper Discounts & Rewards service.

On March 23, 2009, Mr. Mukhtar sent an email to Reservation Rewards and requested information about his membership. The Shopper Discounts & Rewards customer service representative who handled the email explained how the membership was joined. As requested, his Shopper Discounts & Rewards membership was cancelled. Mr. Mukhtar also requested a refund at that time. Consistent with company practice, we provided a refund of two months of membership fees. An email was sent to the email address on file with the membership, confirming the cancellation and pending refund. These refunds were processed the next day, on March 24, 2009, and should already appear as credits to his account. Mr. Mukhtar was informed in an email that we may provide refunds above the amounts set forth above if a consumer believes charges relating to our service are the result of unauthorized activity. If Mr. Mukhtar believed certain account activity on his credit or debit card was unauthorized, he could request a full refund by going to the website below, completing the affidavit we provided and returning it to us.

If Mr. Mukhtar completes the affidavit we provided and returns it to us, we will review his request and respond by email with our determination regarding the claim within thirty (30) days of our receipt of all required information and documentation.

We believe we treated Mr. Mukhtar in a fair and correct manner, and our records reflect that Mr. Mukhtar took several affirmative steps to sign up for the Shopper Discounts & Rewards service and received multiple communications from us, including a pre-billing notification, prior to the first charge on his credit or debit card. We trust this resolves this matter, however, if you have questions or need additional information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

Adam Magrath

Customer Service Legal Liaison

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04/24/2009 cmh EMAIL Forward Business Response to Consumer

04/27/2009 WEB BBB RECEIVED CONSUMER RESPONSE/REBUTTAL : (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT ACCEPT the response from the business.)

Dear Ms. Sturm,

This letter is in response to your e-mail, dated: April 27, 2009, regarding Mr. Adam Magrath’s reply to my complaint.

Rejoinder:
Mr. Magrath’s reply didn’t help in resolving the issue at all. Instead he just expatiated on his company’s fabricated story that I subscribed for a membership, while I clearly remember that I did not accept any membership offer from his company. I want to drive your attention to the preposterous reason Mr. Magrath gave: “$10 Off Your Next Purchase for trying our service, which he accepted”. Would any sane person accept a membership that gives “$10 off on the next purchase” with $12 monthly fees? What good this membership is, if it gives me $10 discount on my next purchase and charges me $12 every month?

Mr. Magrath can happily think that his company records can be used to show that I subscribed for a membership; however, as a software engineer I very well understand how easy it is to change user’s response on a web application or tamper records in a database.

As Mr. Magrath claims that his company sent me several e-mails, reminders and warnings at couple of occasions; he doesn’t have a single piece of e-mail which he received from me. My question is, since Mr. Magrath didn’t receive a single piece of e-mail from me, what are those “several affirmative steps” of mine that made Mr. Magrath believe that I’m interested in the membership? And let me please explain that I never ever, received any of these e-mails that Mr. Magrath claims.

If Shopper Discounts is treating their customers “in a fair and correct manner” then why there are zillions of online customers anathematizing this fraudulent company? I would request you to spare one or two minutes and enter the following string in Google search and see how many people are complaining against this company:

“Scam Webloyalty, Inc Fraud”

Or visit this link:

http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/webloyalty.com
Long story short, Mr. Magrath’s whole response is full of contradictions. I think his sole purpose for writing this protracted response was to add fluff, waste our time and digress from the actual issue under discussion.

Lastly, please allow me to share another paradox in Mr. Magrath’s response, on one hand, in his response he insists that my money can only be refunded if I complete his company’s affidavit on the given web link; and on the other hand I received an e-mail from Shopper Discounts that all of my money will be refunded in a few days. I’ll update you as soon as I receive the refund. Nonetheless, in order to save naïve and innocent online customers in future, I would still request you to take firm actions to get this company out of business and/or held responsible people behind bars.

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Following is the e-mail I received from Shopper Discounts a couple of days after I filed case at BBB:

Thank you for contacting Shopper Discounts & Rewards. We have received your request for additional refunds. As an accommodation, we are issuing an additional five $12.00 refunds to the credit card listed in your membership profile. If you require further assistance, please contact our Customer Service Department at 800-889-8776. Our Customer Service Representatives are available Monday through Friday 8:00 am to 11:00 pm, Saturday from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm and Sunday from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm EST.

Thank you for your posting this. I have same problem you had. After calling the company, $144.00 (for 6 months) was refunded. But I need more for $ 120.00.
I also have “unauthorized charge affidavit” which I got from the company via email for additional refund. But I’m not sure how to fill out the form. Did you check # 3. B question in the form “Have you received a credit or refund for the unauthorized charge?” Because I will mark “No” in all 4 questions in #3, but I’m wondering the company will say “not enough evidence for unauthorized charge”.

I did not fill their stupid “unauthorized charge affidavit”, because it again asks you to give your private information like your address and credit card number. Instead of negotiating with the thugs, contact BBB, the way I did. I’ve posted my complete correspondence with BBB, feel free to get help from it.

I TOO HAVE BEEN SCAMMED BY 3 YES 3 OF THEM SHOOPERS DISCOUNT, EASY SAVER AND PRIVACY MATTERS. I HOPE TO GET MY MONEY BACK FROM SOME OF THEM AND I HEAR THAT THEY WAIT A COUPLE OF MONTHS AND THEN START STAKING IT OUT AGAIN.. SO BEWARE OF THESE PEOPEL THEY NEED TO BE PUT OUT OF BUSINES. ILL NEVER BUY ANYTHING ON LINE AGAIN!!!!

March 20,2011 and Shopper Discount/Webloyalty is still scamming people. I bought, items from Drugstore.com and thought I was accepting a coupon from them for a further purchase,I had no idea that I was accepting to have my bank account raided $120 for a service that I did not know I was getting or want. Right! It is crazy to think I would pay $12.00 for a $10.00 coupon! There is a long list of companies that allow themselves to be use to trick and dupe their customers, What is sad is that for some of the companies we have built a loyalty to them and they have betrayed us! orbitz is one such company.

The worst part is, these companies are abusing the system. On per person basis, the amount of money they dupe never goes above $1000; because of such small claims govt cannot shut them down. People like you and I can dispute at BBB, the membership fees that these companies charged from our credit cards. The best output we can expect is, we’ll get our money back. But what about other online customers? The scammers will continue to scam other people and no one is there to stop them!

Hi Mr Mukhtar
I just discovered today I am a victim for the last 14 mths for a similar scam from shoppers discount after purchasing something online from drugstore.com.
However, I am not living in USA. Can you please advise if BBB is only applicable for US citizens.
I tried in vain calling the tollfree no. which shoppers discount has indicated in their website for cancellation of my so called “unauthorized” membership. I hv brought up my complaint to Amex credit card centre for this fraud but it will take at least 6-8 wks for the investigation.
I thought of cancelling the credit card immediately but would that mean that I will not be able to get back any refund.
Appreciate if you could reply to my email
regards
serene

I don’t think you need to cancel your credit card. If you have informed your bank about these fraudulent charges on your card then your bank will block this company to make any further attempts to charge your card. So now the only thing left is getting your money back. I think you can still file a case at BBB without being inside USA. The process initially starts with e-mail correspondence, in my case, it resolved at that stage, hopefully yours will do as well. In the worst case scenario BBB might summon Shopper Discount and ask you to attend a court hearing. At that point if you really can’t come to US and you have nobody to represent you then just withdraw your case. But I would suggest you to file at BBB, it’s worth a shot.

Please also note the above suggestion is not a legal advice, and if the amount of money they charged from you is huge then you might want to consider hiring an attorney who can guide you better. I wish you good luck! 🙂